Garbage Patch

Why am I showing you a picture of a bag of trash?

This is my garbage out put for 20 days! It’s mostly yogurt cups, juice concentrate bottles (glass) and some plastic bags and paper.

Of course when I first moved here, I had lots more garbage. Buying new things, not knowing which things had more unnecessary packing than others, buying the wrong things etc all created waste. But over time, as I got more accustomed to life in Sri Lanka and the things that are sold here, I was able to slowly reduce my garbage output. It took 6 months, but this is what nearly 3 weeks worth of garbage for me in Sri Lanka looks likes.

Major contributors of volume reduction were

1) I learned to compose. I got a pretty resilient compose bag now that can take most any kitchen scraps.

2) I learned how quickly things go bad. At first I didn’t know, at it was quite different from Japan or the states, so a lot of food went bad before I could use it. Now, I can plan according to how long things last and which foods go with what so I waste almost nothing!

3) I learned to avoid excessive packaging. Even though you don’t eat or use useless packaging, you still pay for it. Avoid it to save money, and the environment.

If you think about it, the only thing you actually by anew every single day is food. Buy eggs in paper cartons, not plastic if you have the choice. Don’t buy water if you don’t have to. Buying smaller portions might reduce waste, but may increase packaging…that’s a tough one. The point is, just pay attention to what you are buying. Not just the product itself, but what it comes wrapped in and how you will dispose of it all when done. It’ll go a long way in reducing waste.